Part 1: What are Blu-ray Region Codes?

Some Blu-ray discs are encoded with a region code. A region code on a Blu-ray disc can restrict which area of the world the disc can be played. The Blu-ray region code system generally divides the world into 3 different zones, namely Region A, Region B and Region C. Below is the Blu-ray region code list for your reference.

Region A: North America, South America, U.S. Territories, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and other areas of Southeast Asia.

Region B: Europe, Africa, Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand.

Region C: Asia with the exception for Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and other areas of Southeast Asia.

This is how the Blu-ray region codes work: A Blu-ray disc encoded with the region code A can only be play with a Blu-ray player with the same region code or a Region-free player. You can’t play a Region A Blu-ray disc with a Region B or Region C Blu-ray player. A Blu-ray disc that carries a specific region code can only be played with the Blu-ray player of that specific region. But there are some region-free Blu-ray players that can play all Region A, B and C Blu-ray discs. You can also find some region-free Blu-ray discs or Blu-ray discs that have all 3 region codes on them. This kind of Blu-ray discs can be play with all Blu-ray players no matter what region codes are encoded on them.

When buying a Blu-ray disc in a local store, you can directly look on the cover of the disc to find out about the region code on the disc. If it has all ABC codes on it, it would mean it’s basically a region-free disc, just like the picture shown below.

The prices of different Blu-ray discs of the same movie can differ from region to region. Some people choose to buy a Blu-ray disc from a different region because they can pay less money for the same movie. But this could lead to playback problem of the disc if the Blu-ray disc and your Blu-ray player are encoded with different region codes. If you do have a Blu-ray disc like that and you don’t want to see the Blu-ray disc go to waste, you can try to remove the Blu-ray disc region code by creating a region-free copy of the disc.

Part 2: How to Remove Region Code to Get Region-free Blu-ray Disc

To clarify, there’s basically nothing we can do about the original Blu-ray disc, what we can do is make an exact copy of the disc that has no Blu-ray region codes on it. If you want to make a region-free copy of your region-locked disc, below are the things needed in the copying making process.

1. A Blu-ray recordable disc. If the original disc is BD50, remember to get a recordable disc with the same storage space.

2. A suitable piece of Blu-ray disc copying software that’s capable of removing the Blu-ray region code on the original disc when copying the disc.

When you can’t reprogram the region code on the disc, you can use a program called Leawo Blu-ray Copy to make a lossless copy of your Blu-ray disc and remove the Blu-ray region code on it while doing so. Leawo Blu-ray Copy is designed to help users back up their Blu-ray discs with ease. It can make 1:1 copies of all kinds of Blu-ray/DVD discs as well as compress BD50 to BD25, DVD-9 to DVD-5. It will just take a few steps to make a 1:1 lossless, region-free copy of your Blu-ray disc using Leawo Blu-ray Copy. For a step-by-step guide on that, check out the content below.

Step 1. Download Leawo Blu-ray Copy and install it on your computer.

Step 2.Insert a new blank Blu-ray disc to the disc drive on the condition that your computer has dual Blu-ray disc drives.

Step 3.Open the program and load the Blu-ray disc. You can simply click on the “Add Blu-ray/DVD” button to load the Blu-ray disc. Once you have inserted the Blu-ray disc, then you can view the Blu-ray content on this program immediately.

Step 4. Set the relevant parameters. You can select the Disc Type, Copy Mode (Full Movie, Main Movie and Custom Mode) and subtitle and audio track based on your preferences.

Step 5. Start copying Blu-ray. This new Blu-ray copy would be without any region codes protection. Once set all the parameters, you can click the big green button “Copy” on the top-right corner. Before copying, you will be required to set the “Copy to”, “Disc Label”, “Save to”.

When you only have one Blu-ray drive, the procedure for burning the folder or the ISO file to the recordable disc is easy. It’s basically no different from the copying procedure from above. Just drag the folder or ISO file to the program to import them and repeat step 3 to step 4. And in step 4, you’ll need to get the original disc out of the Blu-ray drive and the recordable disc in and select it as the target from the drop-down menu of the third option.

Part 3: How to Remove Region Code to Get Digital Video Files

Instead of spending more money on buying a blank Blu-ray disc, you can also get the digital videos content from the original Blu-ray disc. Here, in order to obtain the digital form of the Blu-ray disc, an additional ripping program has to be prepared. That is Leawo Blu-ray Ripper. . Leawo Blu-ray Ripper is able to rip Blu-ray and DVD to 180+ video or audio with 100% original quality and 6X faster speed. With Leawo Blu-ray Ripper, you can personalize the Blu-ray movies including file merging, media editing, 3D movie creating, parameter adjusting, etc with the best output quality.

Step 1. Download Leawo Blu-ray Ripper and then install it on your computer.

Step 2. Import the Blu-ray content. You can click “Add Blu-ray/DVD” to import the Blu-ray disc once you have loaded the Blu-ray disc.

Step 3. Choose output format. You can choose MP4 as the output video format. There is a drop-down box named “MP4 Video” by default next to “Add Photo” button. And you can find “Edit”, “Change” and “Apply” three options. You can click “Change” to enter the “Profile” panel to select the output format. Here you can select MP4, MKV, AVI etc as your preferred digital video format.

Step 4. Start converting the Blu-ray disc to digital video. After setting the video parameters, you can click the green button “Convert” to start the conversion process. But before it starts, you need to set a directory under “Save to” box. Finally, you can just click “Convert” button at the bottom to start the Blu-ray to digital video conversion process. Just wait in several minutes, and you will obtain a new video in MP4 format.

Part 4: Play All Region-locked Blu-ray Easily with Region-free Player

If you have enough expense, you can purchase a standalone Blu-ray player that can easily supports all kinds of Blu-ray discs. Check out the two region-free Blu-ray players we are recommending below. You should find no problems playing your Blu-ray discs with them.

Being one of the inventors of Blu-ray, you can count on Sony to provide a high quality region-free Blu-ray player. The Sony BDP-S6500 has basically all the features you would want in a Blu-ray player. To start off, it’s region-free, it can play Blu-ray discs from Region A/B/C and DVD discs 012345678. It also has a future-proof feature: 2K/4K video up scaling for when you use a UHD TV. It supports playback of 3D Blu-ray discs and converting 2D movies to 3D to play on your 3D TV. It’s a pretty rounded region-free Blu-ray player.

The Samsung BD-5900 is another high-end region-free Blu-ray player that packs all the latest features. It’s region-free for both Blu-rays and DVDs and it plays 3D Blu-ray discs. The most interesting feature of it is the support for Wi-Fi and the Samsung All Share content sharing technology that comes with it. It allows you to sync and stream media content to your other devices around the household wirelessly.

Last of all, I will provide another solution for the group who has obtained the Blu-ray players. Aside from the Blu-ray Players, you can also try to turn aside to obtain the Blu-ray viewing experience on your computer by preparing a professional Blu-ray player program, which is much easier and convenient and cheaper. Here, you should not miss Leawo Blu-ray Player.

As one of the most advanced and professional Blu-ray player software, Leawo Blu-ray Player is totally free for using, while at the same time, it can be able to provide the solutions for Blu-ray as well as 4K files with ease and accuracy. It can also easily decrypt the region code protections directly without affecting any quality of the original videos.

Part 5: Conclusion

Blu-ray discs can be able to present and store various vivid and fabulous video contents. If your Blu-ray discs have been protected by the disc region codes, then they may not be played in the common way, what you have to do is to remove the region code protections with a proper program, or try to convert them to a digital video so that you can play them on a piece of Blu-ray player software. By the way, if you have the tendency to get a free Blu-ray viewing experience, Leawo Blu-ray Player can be your perfect choice.